Gunmen attack Plateau village, kill 6, set houses, foodstuff ablaze

No fewer than six persons were reportedly killed after gunmen attacked a village at Miango district in Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State.

The deceased: three males, two females and an infant were said to have been killed and others injured when the assailants attacked Tegbe village over the weekend after the state government had imposed a 12-hour curfew on the local government.

Commissioner of Police in the state, Undie Adie, who was on an assessment tour of the village, described the attack as a shock considering the curfew imposed in the area.

According to him, “the gunmen took advantage of the restriction to unleash terror on three villages with houses burnt, lives lost and people injured.”

An eyewitness spoke to reporters yesterday said that the attackers came at about midnight on Saturday and shot sporadically, an act he said “caught the people unaware.”

He added that he managed to escape the scene while the attackers set some houses ablaze, as well as barns where harvested foodstuff was preserved.

Meanwhile, the state government has condemned the attack in a statement issued on Sunday by the Director, Press and Public Affairs, Samuel Nanle.

The government said the attack sought to “take the state back to the dark days of violent conflicts” and vowed to identify and prosecute all those behind the heinous crime.

It also warned that any person or group in villages and neighbourhoods identified to have been providing refuge and escape for perpetrators of the act would not be spared the wrath of the law.